As to the social life of the early heroic age, of which we get so many interesting glimpses in the Epics, it is certain that it was extremely simple and rude; as, for instance, to cite a single example, the life of the Pandavas in their primitive “house of lac,” where their mother ministered to them without the assistance of any servants at all, although, be it remembered, the young princes were supposed to be enjoying themselves away from home on a sort of holiday excursion. There is, however, ample evidence to show that by the time the poems were actually compiled or, at any rate, cast into their present forms, a complicated society had been evolved, and a life of luxurious ease and refinement was not unknown. Throughout the period embraced in the Epics the caste-system was well established, animal food commonly used,[137] and spirituous drinks not prohibited. Polygamy was common, and polyandry a recognized institution, while the practice known as _Niyoga_--of raising up offspring to deceased relatives or childless men--was, undoubtedly, fully established. Now _caste_, with its baleful influences, still dominates Hindu life; polygamy continues to be common in some parts of India; polyandry is still practised, here and there, in backward places; and _Niyoga_, which has never ceased to be orthodox doctrine, has, in these days, had special prominence given to it by Swami Dayanand, and the sect recently founded by him. The practice in question--which is known in a modified form as _levirate_[138] amongst the Jews--has been established in India since time immemorial, and we have had important instances of it in the foregoing pages. What Manu, the great Indian _lawgiver_, says on the subject of _Niyoga_ is as follows: “On failure of issue by the husband, if he be of the servile class, the desired offspring may be procreated, either by his brother or some other _sapinda_, on the wife, who has been duly authorized. Sprinkled with clarified butter, silent, in the night, let the kinsman thus appointed beget one son, but a second by no means, on the widow or _childless wife_. By men of twice-born classes no widow or childless wife must be authorized to conceive by any other man than her lord.”[139] Swami Dayanand, however, does not limit the practice of _Niyoga_ to the inferior castes, nor to the cases referred to by Manu. The modern _reformer_ goes much further, teaching a doctrine, _said to be founded on the Vedas_, which allows a latitude in respect to the relations between the sexes that, to say the least, is extremely startling in this nineteenth century.[140] I am bound to add that I have been very positively assured that Swami Dayanand’s precepts in respect to _Niyoga_ are not actually practised by his followers, but their dangerous tendency is, I presume, undeniable.